SDSU's Shepard: Living up to the hype

San Diego State's Winston Shepard, center, drives and picks up a foul by Cal State Bakersfield's Stephon Carter, left, as Javonte Maynor (3) looks on at right in the second half during an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
— AP

San Diego State's Winston Shepard, center, drives and picks up a foul by Cal State Bakersfield's Stephon Carter, left, as Javonte Maynor (3) looks on at right in the second half during an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
/ AP

It began with a citation for marijuana possession just weeks after he arrived on campus. Then there was the three-game suspension in November for violating the NCAA’s impermissible benefits rules, reportedly involving a car loan.

Now Winston Shepard wasn’t running back on defense.

He missed a layup in the second half against USD and stood there under the basket jawing at the referee … while the Toreros raced to the other end and punctuated the fast break with a dunk. San Diego State coach Steve Fisher angrily signaled for timeout before the rim had stopped shaking.

Shepard learned he was coming out of the game, threw a towel and stormed out of the huddle.

Ah, freshmen.

Except Shepard is no ordinary freshman. He was a five-star prospect out of Findlay Prep in Las Vegas, rated the nation’s 21st best player by Rivals.com in the class of 2012 and the most decorated high school recruit in SDSU basketball history. He is 6-foot-8, with point guard skills in a forward’s body, capable of posting a quadruple-double (points, rebounds, assists, blocks), “an NBA-type talent” in the estimation of lead Aztecs recruiter Tony Bland.

Big accolades. Big dreams. Big expectations.

Big head?

“It’s easy to come in and, you know, think you’re the man,” Shepard said, “and kind of lose your focus a little bit because of the hype.”

Was he humbled?

“Yes, sir.”

Humbled no more. There were glittering flakes of potential through late December and early January, and then the breakout performance. Xavier Thames, SDSU’s starting point guard for 32 straight games, had a lower back strain and couldn’t go in the Mountain West opener at Fresno State last week. Shepard started.

He finished with four points, seven rebounds, seven assists (the most by an Aztec player this season), two blocks, one steal and just two turnovers in 34 minutes. The Aztecs won 65-62 but were plus-11 points with him on the floor. In the final minute, he had a game-saving block and grabbed the offensive rebound that sealed the victory.

“I think he’s finally to the point where he’s not reading everything that somebody puts online or other people are saying about him,” Fisher said. “He’s just doing what we want, relaxing and trying to play. That’s what he has to do. Winston Shepard is going to be a terrific player. He’ll have his moments, but he’s going to be a terrific player.

“He has too much talent not to be.”

Afterward, Shepard was briefly made available to the media for the first and only time this season. He declined to discuss specifics about the NCAA case or the marijuana citation, which doesn’t have its next court date until the spring and which is classified as an infraction – one notch below a misdemeanor and usually adjudicated with a modest fine. But he did speak candidly about a freshman year that has not always been becoming of a five-star recruit.

“The hardest thing was all the stuff that happened at the beginning of the season,” said Shepard, who missed SDSU’s second, third and fourth games. “Where a lot of freshmen around the country were playing their jitters out and getting the rust off, I was sitting. A lot of stuff I had to deal with, a lot of other people didn’t have to deal with. I don’t make any excuses. I stuck with it. I kept playing hard.

“I looked at it as a blessing in disguise, me getting in trouble and having to sit out – you know what I’m saying? It brought me down to earth and made me realize that I’ve just got to play.”

He was never going to instantly post huge scoring numbers, painting instead with subtle brush strokes that escape the appreciation of all but a handful of museum curators. He is a pass-first player in a me-first generation, a defensive stopper, a little-things guy.

And his transition to college basketball was never going to be easy, or at least not as easy as a wing who merely runs off screens and shoots. Shepard was trying to be a 6-8 point guard. A 6-8 true freshman point guard.

“At all your top programs, you can ask any of the coaches at that level, the point guard position is the most critical,” said Michael Peck, Shepard’s coach at Findlay Prep who is now head coach of the Idaho Stampede, the Portland Trail Blazers’ affiliate in the NBA D-League. “They’ve got to know all the positions. They have to know the style and demeanor of the head coach and translate that onto the court, and know the entire playbook, too. It’s an NFL-type quarterback spot.”

Peck noted something else about his former player: his new head coach.

“Going with Fish is probably the best fit for him in terms of player-coach relationship, how Fish relates to and handles players,” Peck said. “Winston is one of those guys who needs a certain style and approach from a coaching staff to maximize what you get out of him.”

It’s a polite way of saying that Fisher is a master of integrating egos, large and small, into a common whole.

Shepard’s first four games: 3 assists, 15 turnovers.

His last nine: 26 assists, 12 turnovers.

Junior forward Jamaal Franklin roomed with Shepard – “my little bro,” the 6-6 Franklin calls him – over the summer and introduced him to his legendary workouts that often last past midnight. A man not easily impressed was.

“He had a little side to him to where he was a cocky a little bit,” said Franklin, the ultimate self-made player who left high school with a zero-star rating. “But he had a good cocky side. It wasn’t a cocky side that makes you not to want to play with him. He has that swagger we like to have at San Diego State.

“He was grinding with me. I can’t say he’s (too) cocky because he’s willing to grind. A cocky person isn’t willing to grind.”

The team got on the bus after the Fresno State game for the 5-hour ride home, and at 11:31 p.m. Shepard posted a rare message on his regularly dormant Twitter account: